Active Member

I am starting to build my home cinema kit and my speaker budget is £400. I have found Mission FS2 (discounttv.co.uk) for £400, Elac Cinema 2 (audio-excellence.co.uk) for £399 and Eltax Liberty including sub (richersounds.com) for £400.

I am aware of all the positive opinions for Mission on this forum and on mags, but Elac Cinema One has come very strong lately in the mags and that goes for Eltax Libery as well who got very good points for music as well as cinema.

And if I wanna add one more speaker to take advantage 6.1, which system would be easiest to buy one extra without needing to spend loads. E.g. I would say that e.g. Liberty has a good foundation as it wouldn't be too difficult to find a speaker that matches both physically and musically. But the speakers are a bit on the large side.

Elac has a very good inhouse R&D and their warranty is for 10 years. The speakers have protective system so you can't drive it too hard and they are quite small as well.

Mission, do I need to say anything? The only downside is the huge cost to buy another FS2 speaker for 6.1. I guess that would go for Elac as well.

Active Member

Being in the same boat as you I'd definately go for the Mission FS2-AV's for £400.

The good thing about them is that the sound seems to travel around the room equally as good regardless of where your actually sitting or walking about in the room.

The NXT technology also means that if like me you no longer wan't 5 or 6 humongous wooden boxes sticking out like sore thumbs all over your room then these little beauties are easily hidden away too, an extra bonus for those with an eye for detail me thinks and a keen favourite with the other half for sure

I know what you mean though about getting another single speaker for the 6.1 experience. Mission only sell these units as a pack of 2 and the cheapest I've seen them for was around £200. My only advice would be as a mate of mine recently did, is to ask on a forum if anyone else is in the same position go halves on them, so it would be £100 each and split the pack.

From what I've seen, heard and read I'd probably class Eltax as a budget brand and therefore I'd be far happier with the Missions.

Standard Member

just to set you right on one thing... yes its expensive to go 6.1/7.1 with the FS2s using another stereo FS2 pack...(£350).
but you can happily use a set of Mission ds series bipoles.

still matches the sound exactly (according to Mission tech) and infinitely cheaper.

for starters, Richer have 3 different Mission ds models from £99 to £129.

depending on your amp, you may only have one rear centre out,
so you could even split these with someone and go 6.1 for £50.

will be doing this myself sometime soon.

]|EGG|[ just noticed on your post above, you cant plug the satellites directly into the amp.. they have to go through a sub, so you are forced to buy another FS2 with a sub...(which is why I quoted £350+). no bass otherwise. the bipoles are a much cheaper route.

Active Member

Cheers for pointing out the fact about the extra sats needing another sub, Duh.....too much beer Friday night me thinks

I'm due to order a set of the FS2-AV's this week and wanted to ask a couple of questions incase peeps were able to help please.

My main concern is trying to hide the speaker cable from the sats by making a channel in the walls for them to sit in, and to then plaster over them so the speakers look as tidy as possible.

Just wondered if you or anyone knew the best tools to take on a job like this as I'm moving into a new house this week and want to take my time on the little issues like this to make the room look it's best when it's finished.

I hope the sound from the FS2's is as good as people are saying, I'm still undecided as to whether to place the sats in the extreme top corners of the room or maybe bring them down to ear height in a standing position....dilema dilema

One thing that pee'd me off a bit is that all the Mission promotional images for the FS2's shows clearly a grey/silver cloth covering the Sub Woofer to match the satellites. For example just take a look at any of the PDF's on Missions site or the images shown on www.empire direct etc. It's not until you see the units in the flesh that you realise the sub is totally black. Seems a shame as it would be nice for it all to be matching as the silver sub would of been nice to have on display rather than trying to hide the thing away.

Mission advised me to spray paint the cover grille but it would of been better if they could of sold me a silver coloured grille

2. I'm still undecided as to whether to place the sats in the extreme top corners of the room or maybe bring them down to ear height in a standing position

the speakers do disperse the sound really well from a small point.. mine are mounted at about 7ft, and I've seen them mounted at 9-10ft without any problems. room size may be a key point here though (again see pictures).

3. the black subwoofer? it would be nice for it all to be matching as the silver sub would of been nice to have on display rather than trying to hide the thing away.

agreed.. Mission have made a booboo here. there should be a proper silver gril.
mine is hidden under a table, with some indian silk over it.. completely hidden so it doesnt intrude in the room at all.. no pictures of this, but I will do some tonight if I have time.

Well-known Member

For what it's worth i replaced Mission with Eltax Liberty 3&5+'s and found the Eltax to be a better speaker.Bass and midrange were improved,although the treble seemed a bit harsh at first, it was fine after a couple of weeks use.The only thing to watch out for was the finish on the speakers were a bit iffy in places.hth

A stupid man behaves stupidly, not because he wants to, or tries to, or is motivated to, but simply because he is what he is!

Active Member

Thanks for all the opinions. I think I will go for the Mission's ;p as their design fit better in a contemporary room style, without any loss of quality.

Ian J - regarding - Inhouse R&D and warranty for Elac not for Eltax, I meant that Elac may not be the most famous speaker brand in UK, but around the world it has a very good reputation and their investments are giving results (see their website www.elac.com) and Essential Home Cinema issue 13 gave Cinema One a 4 star, which raised my eyebrows positively.

And Eltax Liberty has also been given 4 or 4 1/2 stars by most of the British mags and that must mean something, when Eltax usually has been given poor ratings.

Has anyone heard anything about the new Mission FS-1AV? They are in the back page cover on one of the Magazines, but there are no info on their webpage?